Quick Wit and a Quicker Broom
by Clarity Texas
Summary: Ginny is having a little trouble fitting in with the Holyhead Harpies. After being hazed, she turns to Harry for some advice and a snogging session. One-shot!


**Disclaimer**: All creative rights to the characters belong to their original creator(s) and are in no way connected with J.K. Rowling, Scholastic Books, Bloomsbury Publishing or Warner Bros. The author of the following FanFiction does not in any way profit from the story and it is written solely for entertainment purposes only. Rights to characters and their settings is neither claimed nor implied.

Quick Wit and a Quicker Broom

Ginny woke up to a flurry of golden snitches buzzing about her stomach. It was a most unpleasant feeling. She mopped the red hair away from her eyes and rolled out of bed. Her tiny feet landed on the hardwood floor softly as she tossed her robe across her small frame. She more or less stumbled down the stairs to reach the heavenly smells beckoning to her from her mother's kitchen.

Molly Weasley was still at the stove, making a generous amount of hash browns. A slight look of surprise crossed her face as she saw her daughter with a nasty case of bedhead throw herself into a kitchen chair. "Morning, Ginny. How are you feeling?"

Ginny made an unintelligible grunt. Molly shrugged it off. For some odd reason, she had ended up giving birth to seven children who were definitely not morning people like herself. Even Arthur was rather chipper in the mornings, which added to the mystery.

Molly quickly finished making breakfast and set a plate in front of her daughter as she moved to the stair cases to yell up at her remaining children. "Wake up, you lot! Breakfast!"

Within a few minutes, the stair banister could be seen slightly trembling. George, Ron, and Percy came tearing down the stairs, occasionally elbowing the competition out of the way. They knew better than to be the last one at breakfast. There was always enough food to feed all of the Weasleys, but there was not always enough sausage. The first one to be seated at the table always got one extra sausage.

Rounding the last step, Percy jutted out his elbow at just the right moment, using it to his advantage and vaulting himself into the seat beside Ginny. Percy smirked in triumph onlyto be thwarted when he realized Ginny had beaten them all to the table. "What are you doing up so early?"

"Couldn't sleep. First Holyhead practice today."

Percy nodded as he snatched up the extra sausage. It wasn't his fault Ginny didn't act first.

Ron looked a bit confused. "Well why are you nervous? You were head and shoulders better than the lot of 'em at try outs. At least that's what Harry said."

Molly huffed indignantly. "Leave your sister alone, boys. She's allowed to be nervous. Have another scone, Ginny."

After Ginny had eaten enough to please her mother, she set her dishes in the sink and started the enchanted scrub brush. She smiled to herself. She loved being able to use magic! The novelty of little things like that hadn't worn out yet. Her 17th birthday was only a few weeks ago.

Ginny leapt lightly up the stairs to her room. She tamed her hair into a pony tail which she then transformed into a braided bun. She scrubbed her face clean and changed into her practice uniform. The tight trousers were black, while her game trousers were white. She pulled on her shin guards and strapped them snugly to her calves. She pulled on a green tank top over her bra and tucked it into the waistband of her trousers. Her practice jersey was white and a little transparent. Green letters across the chest read, "HARPIES" in bright green block letters. She smiled as she slipped it over her head and glanced at her back in the mirror. "WEASLEY" was printed across her shoulder blades while a large "08" took up the rest of her back. She strapped her arm guards to her forearms and studied her reflection.

_This is your dream, Ginny. You can do this. Stop thinking about mucking it up and just go play!_

She exhaled deeply and picked up her new Firebolt that Harry had bought her. She grabbed her wand off her vanity table and trotted down the stairs.

"Mum, I'm leaving!"

Molly bustled into the scullery with a small basket in hand. "All right, Ginny. I packed you a lunch, dear. Don't be nervous, you'll be brilliant." She beamed at her daughter and lovingly smoothed her all ready smooth hair. "Thanks, Mum. See you tonight."

She collected the rest of her things and skipped outside to the garden to apparate to Wales.

The Holyhead Harpies' pitch was located in a stretch of wilderness. The pitch was as old as the team. The facilities had been remodeled throughout the years, but the three rings on either end were the same rings erected in 1203. The Harpies were fiercely proud of their history of being the first witch only team and the second quidditch team ever formed. She went over to the third statue of a quaffle and whispered, "talon talent," the password to the Holyhead changing room.

The quaffle rolled out of the way to reveal a stone staircase that descended into the earth and down a long corridor. She touched her wand to the door knob and ascended another flight of stairs to enter into a spacious room that smelled blissfully of broom polish and umbrella flowers (mostly due to the fact that a collection of yellow umbrella flowers grew from the ceiling). The walls were a dark green Holyhead colour and were lined with a series of wooden cabinets where the witches kept their things. It led into a smaller yellow room that had a series of toilets and showers.

She hoped that she would beat her team mates, but as her broom stick coloured eyes scanned the changing room, she realized that about half of the witches were already there. She walked over to her cabinet and set her broomstick down beside it.

She shyly looked at the witch one cabinet over. Her name was Giovanna Rossi. She had pale skin with dark Spanish hair that was braided down her back. She would be her fellow chaser along with Gloria Collins. Gloria looked a little severe. She seemed to have a constant scowl on her face, which was constantly accentuated by her cropped dark brown hair. In other words, you would not want to meet Gloria alone in the middle of Knockturn Alley. Gloria's cupboard was on the opposite side of Giovanna's.

Both chasers seemed to be engrossed in their own conversation, leaving Ginny feeling uncomfortably invisible. Trying to shrug off their snobbery, she tapped her wand on her locker to open it. There seemed to be something stuffed unnaturally inside the small space. Before she had time to recognize the dark shape, it fell out of the cupboard, on top of Ginny. Ginny was crushed by its weight onto the ground with a powerful thump.

As her eyes came back into focus, she let out a terrified scream as the body of none other than Harry Potter lay limp across her lap. A large amount of blood was seeping out from his skull.

The changing room fell silent as Gwenog Jones, the captain, rushed over to Ginny's side. She wordlessly pulled Ginny out from under Harry's body. Glaring daggers at Giovanna and Gloria she withdrew her wand and focused her attention to Harry. Harry's body began to twist and change form as Gwenog aimed her wand and yelled, "_Riddikulus!" _ The boggart vanished.

Ginny tried to recover from shock. _It was only a boggart. It was only a boggart. Harry is safe at work. Well, safe,__for an auror. How terrible that would be! How did a boggart get into my cupboard?_

Ginny looked to Gwenog who was seething fury. The other Harpies seemed to have arrived in the mean time. They could sense the tension and promptly stopped what they were doing to witness the scene.

Gwenog took a few steps over to her senior chasers. "What the bloody hell were you thinking putting a boggart in her CUPBOARD? ARE YOU TWO DAFT? WHAT IF SHE HAD QUIT? WHAT IF SHE WENT TO ANOTHER TEAM? WE _NEED_ GINNY! AND I EXPECT YOU TWO APOLOGIZE AND PULL YOUR HEADS OUT OF YOUR ARSES AND GET IT TOGETHER!"

Giovanna looked shamefacedly at the ground. Gloria looked like she was trying not to say anything back. Ginny recognized Gloria's expression immediately. It was the same Fred used to make was caught doing something wrong. Her parents would make him apologize, but he seldom meant it.

Giovanna stepped toward Ginny with a proffered hand. "I'm sorry, Ginny. That was rude of us. Please forgive me."

Ginny accepted her hand and plastered a fake smile to her face.

Gloria begrudgingly apologized with her hands gripping her broom. "Sorry about that. Guess our hazing went too far."

Gwenog seemed to study them for a moment before she decreed, "Your stunt will cost ALL OF YOU three hours of drills. Be on the pitch in two minutes." She turned on her heel and stalked out of the changing room.

As soon as she was out of earshot, the Harpies turned on Gloria and Giovanna. Between things like, "Nice going, daft dimbos!" and "You mucked everything up!" a couple of playbooks and socks were thrown across the room, hitting their backs. They both promptly and agitatedly left the room.

Ginny's insides twisted as she fastened her green Harpies cloak over her shoulders hurriedly. _Great, now the entire team is angry. How am I supposed to work with Giovanna and Gloria when they hate my guts? They'll never pass to me now!_

Sadly, Ginny's premonition was a little too accurate. After running fitness drills on foot for three hours, they finally got to passing drills on broomsticks. Giovanna and Gloria would throw and catch perfectly to each other, but when it was time to pass to Ginny, Gloria would always overshoot Ginny's location while Giovanna always threw the quaffle a centimeters away from Ginny's yearning fingertips. She knew exactly what they were doing. It was making Ginny look like a first rate idiot. Imagine a Holyhead Harpie that couldn't catch a quaffle!

This only earned more drills from Gwenog.

It was easily one of the most miserable days of Ginny's life.

Ginny heaved herself into the Burrow's kitchen door. It was definitely past dinner time. She carelessly dropped her equipment onto the scullery's floor and dragged her bare feet to the kitchen table. She sank into a hard kitchen chair and promptly put her face down on the scrubbed table. She fell asleep instantly.

What seemed like four seconds later, she was woken up to a gentle kiss on the cheek not pressed to the kitchen counter. She blinked a couple of times to see Harry in the chair next to her. "Oh Harry, you're not dead!"

A smile of amusement passed his face. "Bad dream? Your mum said you've been asleep for about an hour?"

Ginny sat up in confusion. "Sure didn't feel like an hour. I thought I was asleep for a few moments. No, it really happened."

Now it was Harry's turn to be confused. "Are you…talking about the Battle of Hogwarts?"

"Well no. Let me start over. Today was really horrid, Harry. Horrid! It was worse than your first day at work."

Harry raised an eyebrow. "That bad? You need to eat then." Harry got up and fixed a plate of Molly's leftovers and put it in front of Ginny.

"Thank you." In between mouthfuls of food Ginny began her story, "So I got to the pitch…and went into the changing rooms."

Harry nodded and nicked a biscuit off her plate.

Ginny was too tired to care about her stolen biscuit and continued, "And so I went to my cupboard to get my cloak. My cupboard was next to Giovanna Rossi and Gloria Collins."

"Well that's good, they're some of your favourite players, aren't they?"

The look on Ginny's face told him otherwise. "Well I did. I opened up my cupboard and um…you….fell out…dead." Ginny sighed. "They put a boggart in my cupboard as a hazing prank."

Harry looked concerned. "Doesn't sound that funny to me."

Ginny nodded in agreement as she swallowed a bite of chicken. "It wasn't. Gwenog was furious. She punished the entire team for it. Which just made things worse. Now they won't pass to me. They keep on over or under throwing the quaffle. So now it looks like I'm a little girl that got on the Harpies because her boyfriend that she is terrified of him dying."

Harry was deep in thought for a moment before he replied slowly, "Well I am not sure what to do about dying. Obviously, I am very careful. You were the main reason that I came back…that night I died."

Ginny's eyes widened in shock. It was usually too painful to talk about the war. They preferred to talk about the future. "You never told me that before!"

Harry avoided her eyes, a little embarrassed. "It's not exactly the easiest thing to talk about, Gin. But you know I love you."

Ginny smiled. "I love you, too. But what should I do? The whole team either hates me or resents me."

Harry nodded. "So when all of this stuff happened, what did you do?"

"I screamed of course."

"Then what?"

"Then I ran bloody drills for the rest of the day, Harry!"

"Wait. You didn't retaliate? You didn't say any saucy remark?"

Ginny looked utterly confounded. "No, why would I do that?"

Harry chuckled to himself. "Ginny, you have a remark for everything! I'm surprised you let them get away with this!"

"Since when do I have a remark for everything?"

Harry shrugged. "For as long as you talked to me, probably longer than that. For example, my sixth year, your fifth year? There was that time Romilda Vane kept on bothering you about my imaginary tattoo. Instead of telling her that I didn't have one or something, you had that saucy comeback that my tattoo was a Hungarian Horntail because it was more macho. And you told her Ron had a tattoo of a pygmy puff."

Ginny smirked. "Suppose I forgot about that."

"I didn't. I was so proud to be with you." He leaned in and kissed her hair. "Now as to what you should do, I know this sounds a little trite, but you should be yourself. Act like you normally do. You normally would hex someone who pranks you or at least say something. Treat them like you would treat your brothers."

Ginny finished a last forkful of food into her mouth. "You know I think you may have something there, Potter."

A mischievous glint appeared in Harry's green eyes. "I love it when you use my last name, Weasley."

Ginny giggled. "Oh, Potter. That was too easy."

Harry stood up promptly. "Want to go for a walk in the garden?"

"Funny. Here I was thinking you wanted to snog my face off." Ginny stood and deposited her plate in the sink.

Harry growled and grabbed Ginny's legs, tossing her small frame over his shoulder. Ginny shrieked with giggles as Harry stole her away from the Burrow and into the hedgerows.

"Put me down, Potter!"

Harry gracefully set her down in small clearing, not too far from the Burrow. He draped himself across her, using an elbow to support his weight.

"Things really get better, Gin."

Ginny locked eyes with him. "They already are. You're here."

"And you're here. In your quidditch clothes." His free hand caressed her cheek.

Ginny groaned. "And I probably smell like a rubbish bin."

Harry made a dramatic show of sniffing her neck, tickling Ginny with his thick black hair. "You smell lovely." He began to kiss her neck. "Because you are lovely."

Ginny wasn't sure of how much time had passed in the clearing with Harry, but at some point Harry pulled his now chapped lips away from hers. "You're exhausted. I can tell by your kisses."

"Mm, sorry." She mumbled in reply.

"Bedtime." Harry picked her up again and carried her into the house and up the stairs. He took off her shoes and her muddy jersey so she could sleep in her tank top underneath. He placed a quilt on top of her and went back downstairs to apparate.

Molly and Arthur were in the kitchen, talking over tea. Harry stood there awkwardly. "Erm… Ginny fell asleep outside…"

Molly smiled in response. "Thanks for putting her to bed, Harry. I'm glad you came over, she seemed a little put out."

Arthur winked at Harry and told him good night.

Ginny awoke as the early dawn light peered into her room. She stretched languidly in her bed and realized that she still had her scrimmage clothes on from yesterday.

"Gross," she mumbled as she climbed out of bed, shedding garments and donning her housecoat. After a thorough shower, she changed into some fresh scrimmage clothes.

After eating breakfast, and traveling to the pitch, she walked into the changing room with her old attitude. She tossed her red mane over her shoulder and entered the changing room.

Most of the Harpies were hurrying about the changing room, attaching arm guards and pinning up hair.

Gloria was the first to say anything to Ginny. "Morning, Weasley. Fancy actually catching a quaffle today?"

Activity slowed around Ginny and Gloria as they turned to watch Gloria.

Ginny smirked. "You know for such a toss pot, you can't toss a quaffle at all."

Giovanna was the first to burst out laughing. A few moments later, the entire team was holding their sides in laughter. Gloria finally recovered, "Welcome to the team, Weasley."

Gwenog appeared from the adjoining shower room. "Morning, ladies. Today I want you to be like Ginny Weasley. Quick wit and quicker on your brooms! Now let's go scrimmage, yeah?"

Author's Note: The first time I uploaded this, I uploaded my unedited draft! I apologize for that. I guess that's what I get for naming my stories similar names. I would like to thank my beta, Lu, for catching this among my other mistakes! If you have a moment, please review. Thanks, I appreciate yall!

Here is the Harpies roster, for reference. They seemed to have an obsession with "G" names.

Seeker: Gemma Holloway

Chaser I: Ginny Weasley

Chaser II: Giovanna Rossi

Chaser III: Gloria Collins

Beater I: Gwenog Jones

Beater II: Giselle Rose

Reserves: Gwennith, Gia, Grace, Gale


End file.
